AMS-IX Infrastructure

AMS-IX is a distributed exchange, currently present at multiple independent colocation facilities in Amsterdam. Each site is equipped with one or more access devices to enable connections to the AMS-IX infrastructure. Colocation services for connected networks are available at all data centre facilities, these are not part of the AMS-IX services.

The current implementation of the AMS-IX peering platform uses an MPLS/VPLS infrastructure. This setup allows for a resilient and highly scalable infrastructure inherent to MPLS, while at the same time the interface towards the members and customers is still the common shared Layer 2 Ethernet platform.

Networks connect with either Gigabit Ethernet (GE), 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10GE), 100 Gigabit Ethernet (100GE) or multiples of these on the access devices. These are Brocade MLX-8 PE routers for GE connections or Brocade MLX-16 or MLX-32 PE routers for 10GE & 100GE connections. To provide more resilience in the connection of 10GE & 100GE connections to the platform, these are terminated on a Glimmerglass system 100 or 300 photonic cross-connect (PXC). The PXC connects the member router (at Layer 1) to one of the local PE routers and if necessary moves this connection to a backup router.

The core of the network is build around Brocade Networks MLX-32 systems (P routers core-glo-20[1,2], core-eun-30[1,2]).

The current AMS-IX setup for layer 1 is visualised below. More detailed information on the MPLS/VPLS setup can be found on the following page.